This is strange stuff, in the end rather self-indulgent and parochial. Lisa Bielawa is a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, and also a composer herself (currently with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project), and has some fine requisite credentials. Her fascination with Franz Kafka led her to create these “songs” – amazingly enough written directly for performer Carla Kihlstedt, who not only sings them but performs simultaneously on the violin. I am guessing that Bielawa is not intending this piece to get performed too often, as I can’t imagine many violinists also able to sing the piece, and vice-versa. The vocal part seems simpler than the violin part, and the latter is played very well indeed, though I don’t think too highly of Ms. Kihlstedt’s vocal abilities, other than being able to sing and play at once. This strikes me as more of a circus trick than anything necessary to art or even to this piece in general, though these kinds of stunts are not unknown to the musical world—it’s just that using texts of Kafka sets a tone of seriousness that almost contraindicates this medium of performance. The voice is competent certainly, but not up to the standards one would expect of art songs, and even feels strained at points as Ms. Kihlstedt’s brain struggles to put creases in spots where none previously existed, though in the end she manages the feat with great aplomb and flair—no easy task. The words, by the way, are all but indecipherable, rendering the composer’s desire to “capture the complex feelings I have when reading these words” moot as far as conveying them to the listener.
A Collective Cleansing uses over-layered electronic tracks that make use of the composer’s own voice. It is interesting and even clever in spots, though there is nothing there that makes one want to return to it. The saving grace on this disc is Lamentations for a City, a chorus and English horn setting of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah that reveals some of the considerable talent Ms. Bielawa has. The piece is cautious in its approach to the text (rightfully so), and considerate of the vocal demands of the chorus, but succeeds admirably in releasing the perspective of the texts into the realm of feeling, which there is plenty. I enjoyed it very much.
The sound is excellent, but overall this is not something I will return to often, if at all. I think that Bielawa has some important things to say, but should learn to do so in a manner less self-obsessed.
— Steven Ritter
